break |
1. v. (transitive, intransitive) To separate into two or more pieces, to fracture or crack, by a process that cannot easily be reversed for reassembly. | |
If the vase falls to the floor, it might break. | |
In order to tend to the accident victim, he will break the window of the car. | |
2. v. (transitive, intransitive) To crack or fracture (bone) under a physical strain. | |
His ribs broke under the weight of the rocks piled on his chest. | |
She broke her neck. | |
He slipped on the ice and broke his leg. | |
3. v. To divide (something, often money) into smaller units. | |
Can you break a hundred-dollar bill for me? | |
The wholesaler broke the container loads into palettes and boxes for local retailers. | |
4. v. To cause (a person or animal) to lose spirit or will; to crush the spirits of. | |
Her child's death broke Angela. | |
Interrogators have used many forms of torture to break prisoners of war. | |
The interrogator hoped to break her to get her testimony against her accomplices. | |
5. v. To turn an animal into a beast of burden. | |
You have to break an elephant before you can use it as an animal of burden. | |
6. v. (intransitive) To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief. | |
My heart is breaking. | |
7. v. To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate. | |
I've got to break this habit I have of biting my nails. | |
to break silence; to break one's sleep; to break one's journey | |
I had won four games in a row, but now you've broken my streak of luck. | |
8. v. To ruin financially. | |
The recession broke some small businesses. | |
9. v. To violate, to not adhere to. | |
When you go to Vancouver, promise me you won't break the law. | |
He broke his vows by cheating on his wife. | |
break one's word | |
Time travel would break the laws of physics. | |
10. v. (intransitive, of a fever) To pass the most dangerous part of the illness; to go down, in terms of temperature. | |
Susan's fever broke at about 3 AM, and the doctor said the worst was over. | |
11. v. (intransitive, of a spell of settled weather) To end. | |
The forecast says the hot weather will break by midweek. | |
12. v. (intransitive, of a storm) To begin; to end. | |
We ran to find shelter before the storm broke. | |
Around midday the storm broke, and the afternoon was calm and sunny. | |
13. v. (intransitive, of morning, dawn, day etc.) To arrive. | |
Morning has broken. | |
The day broke crisp and clear. | |
14. v. (transitive, gaming slang) To render (a game) unchallenging by altering its rules or exploiting loopholes or weaknesses in them in a way that gives a player an unfair advantage. | |
Changing the rules to let white have three extra queens would break chess. | |
I broke the RPG by training every member of my party to cast fireballs as well as use swords. | |
15. v. (transitive, intransitive) To stop, or to cause to stop, functioning properly or altogether. | |
On the hottest day of the year the refrigerator broke. | |
Did you two break the trolley by racing with it? | |
16. v. (specifically, in programming) To cause (some feature of a program or piece of software) to stop functioning properly; to cause a regression. | |
Adding 64-bit support broke backward compatibility with earlier versions. | |
17. v. To cause (a barrier) to no longer bar. | |
break a seal | |
18. v. (specifically) To cause the shell of (an egg) to crack, so that the inside (yolk) is accessible. | |
19. v. (specifically) To open (a safe) without using the correct key, combination or the like. | |
20. v. To destroy the arrangement of; to throw into disorder; to pierce. | |
The cavalry were not able to break the British squares. | |
21. v. (intransitive) To burst forth; to make its way; to come into view. | |
22. v. (intransitive) To interrupt or cease one's work or occupation temporarily. | |
Let's break for lunch. | |
23. v. To interrupt (a fall) by inserting something so that the falling object does not (immediately) hit something else beneath. | |
He survived the jump out the window because the bushes below broke his fall. | |
24. v. (transitive, ergative) To disclose or make known an item of news, etc. | |
The newsman wanted to break a big story, something that would make him famous. | |
I don't know how to break this to you, but your cat is not coming back. | |
In the latest breaking news... | |
When news of their divorce broke, ... | |
25. v. (intransitive, of a sound) To become audible suddenly. | |
26. v. To change a steady state abruptly. | |
His coughing broke the silence. | |
His turning on the lights broke the enchantment. | |
With the mood broken, what we had been doing seemed pretty silly. | |
27. v. (copulative, informal) To suddenly become. | |
Things began breaking bad for him when his parents died. | |
The arrest was standard, when suddenly the suspect broke ugly. | |
28. v. (intransitive) Of a male voice, to become deeper at puberty. | |
29. v. (intransitive) Of a voice, to alter in type due to emotion or strain: in men generally to go up, in women sometimes to go down; to crack. | |
His voice breaks when he gets emotional. | |
30. v. To surpass or do better than (a specific number), to do better than (a record), setting a new record. | |
He broke the men's 100-meter record. | |
I can't believe she broke 3 under par! | |
The policeman broke sixty on a residential street in his hurry to catch the thief. | |
31. v. (sports): | |
32. v. (transitive, tennis) To win a game (against one's opponent) as receiver. | |
He needs to break serve to win the match. | |
33. v. (intransitive, billiards, snooker, pool) To make the first shot; to scatter the balls from the initial neat arrangement. | |
Is it your or my turn to break? | |
34. v. (transitive, backgammon) To remove one of the two men on (a point). | |
35. v. (transitive military, most often in the passive tense) To demote, to reduce the military rank of. | |
36. v. To end (a connection), to disconnect. | |
The referee ordered the boxers to break the clinch. | |
The referee broke the boxers' clinch. | |
I couldn't hear a thing he was saying, so I broke the connection and called him back. | |
37. v. (intransitive, of an emulsion) To demulsify. | |
38. v. (intransitive, sports) To counter-attack | |
39. v. (transitive, obsolete) To lay open, as a purpose; to disclose, divulge, or communicate. | |
40. v. (intransitive) To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength. | |
41. v. (intransitive, obsolete) To fail in business; to become bankrupt. | |
42. v. To destroy the strength, firmness, or consistency of. | |
to break flax | |
43. v. To destroy the official character and standing of; to cashier; to dismiss. | |
44. v. (intransitive) To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change the gait. | |
to break into a run or gallop | |
45. v. (intransitive, archaic) To fall out; to terminate friendship. | |
a |
1. art. One; any indefinite example of; used to denote a singular item of a group. | |
There was a man here looking for you yesterday. | |
2. art. Used in conjunction with the adjectives score, dozen, hundred, thousand, and million, as a function word. | |
I've seen it happen a hundred times. | |
3. art. One certain or particular; any single.Brown, Lesley, (2003) | |
We've received an interesting letter from a Mrs. Miggins of London. | |
4. art. The same; one. | |
We are of a mind on matters of morals. | |
5. art. Any, every; used before a noun which has become modified to limit its scope; also used with a negative to indicate not a single one.Lindberg, Christine A. (2007) | |
A man who dies intestate leaves his children troubles and difficulties. | |
He fell all that way, and hasn't a bump on his head? | |
6. art. Used before plural nouns modified by few, good many, couple, great many, etc. | |
7. art. Someone or something like; similar to; Used before a proper noun to create an example out of it. | |
The center of the village was becoming a Times Square. | |
8. prep. (archaic) To do with position or direction; In, on, at, by, towards, onto. | |
Stand a tiptoe. | |
9. prep. To do with separation; In, into. | |
Torn a pieces. | |
10. prep. To do with time; Each, per, in, on, by. | |
I brush my teeth twice a day. | |
11. prep. (obsolete) To do with method; In, with. | |
12. prep. (obsolete) To do with role or capacity; In. | |
A God’s name. | |
13. prep. To do with status; In. | |
King James Bible (II Chronicles 2:18) | |
To set the people a worke. | |
14. prep. (archaic) To do with process, with a passive verb; In the course of, experiencing. | |
1964, Bob Dylan, The Times They Are a-Changin’ | |
The times, they are a-changin'. | |
15. prep. (archaic) To do with an action, an active verb; Engaged in. | |
1611, King James Bible, Hebrews 11-21 | |
Jacob, when he was a dying | |
16. prep. (archaic) To do with an action/movement; To, into. | |
17. v. (archaic, or slang) Have. | |
I'd a come, if you'd a asked. | |
18. pron. (obsolete, outside, England, and Scotland dialects) He. | |
19. interj. A meaningless syllable; ah. | |
20. prep. (archaic, slang) Of. | |
The name of John a Gaunt. | |
21. adv. (chiefly Scotland) All. | |
22. adj. (chiefly Scotland) All. | |
leg |
1. n. The lower limb of a human being or animal that extends from the groin to the ankle. | |
Dan won't be able to come to the party, since he broke his leg last week and is now on crutches. | |
2. n. (anatomy) The portion of the lower appendage of a human that extends from the knee to the ankle. | |
3. n. A part of garment, such as a pair of trousers/pants, that covers a leg. | |
The left leg of these jeans has a tear. | |
4. n. A stage of a journey, race etc. | |
After six days, we're finally in the last leg of our cross-country trip. | |
5. n. (nautical) A distance that a sailing vessel does without changing the sails from one side to the other. | |
6. n. (nautical) One side of a multiple-sided (often triangular) course in a sailing race. | |
7. n. (sports) A single game or match played in a tournament or other sporting contest. | |
8. n. (geometry) One of the two sides of a right triangle that is not the hypotenuse. | |
9. n. (geometry) One of the branches of a hyperbola or other curve which extend outward indefinitely. | |
10. n. A rod-like protrusion from an inanimate object, supporting it from underneath. | |
the legs of a chair or table | |
11. n. (usually used in plural) evidence, the ability for a thing or idea to succeed or persist | |
12. n. (slang) A disreputable sporting character; a blackleg. | |
13. n. An extension of a steam boiler downward, in the form of a narrow space between vertical plates, sometimes nearly surrounding the furnace and ash pit, and serving to support the boiler; called also wat | |
14. n. In a grain elevator, the case containing the lower part of the belt which carries the buckets. | |
15. n. (cricket) A fielder whose position is on the outside, a little in rear of the batter. | |
16. n. (telephony) A branch or lateral circuit connecting an instrument with the main line. | |
17. n. (electrical) A branch circuit; one phase of a polyphase system. | |
18. n. (US, slang) An army soldier assigned to a paratrooper unit who has not yet been qualified as a paratrooper. | |
19. v. To remove the legs from an animal carcass. | |
20. v. To build legs onto a platform or stage for support. | |
21. v. To put a series of three or more options strikes into the stock market. | |
22. v. To apply force using the leg (as in 'to leg a horse'). | |
23. n. abbreviation of legislature | |
One argument made a lot in the leg was that the bill would simplify voting. | |
24. adj. abbreviation of legislative | |
The party wants to tackle social issues in the next leg term. | |